Max Verstappen was fastest in first practice for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix; the Red Bull driver set a 47.070 to put himself almost a tenth and a half ahead of the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton, who was over half a tenth faster than his teammate Charles Leclerc. The two Ferraris managed to split the Red Bulls as Leclerc went just under half a tenth faster than Isack Hadjar.
Verstappen is yet to win this season, and much of the build-up to one of his home Grands Prix has been about his future, but asked about that, he says a strong Red Bull car over the upcoming races would almost certainly mean the Dutchman stays at the team. Hadjar was a quarter of a second off his teammate but will start near the back as he is one of several drivers to take power unit-related penalties.
Verstappen’s pace came despite Red Bull reverting to a standard rear wing while they refine their version of the ‘macarena’ rear-wing design that caused high-speed crashes for the Dutchman in the past two rounds. But it has not held Red Bull back, and the heavy reliance on engine power at Spa-Francorchamps suits the RB22, which has been deemed to have the best internal combustion engine by the FIA.
The session was Red Bull’s strongest FP1 session of the season as Verstappen and Hadjar traded lap times before getting it down by about a second by the end of the session. Oscar Piastri put his McLaren fifth, a tenth and three-quarters behind Hadjar as he went eight hundredths faster than Kimi Antonelli.
However, the Australian looked set to pull up at the side of the road in the final couple of minutes of the session, being told to stop the car, but then the team may have found a temporary fix or misunderstood the issue with the hydraulics, as they then told him to bring the car back to the pits. Antonelli split the McLarens as he was seven thousandths ahead of Lando Norris while his Mercedes teammate was nearly three hundredths behind the world champion.
Antonelli leads the championship by twenty-five points as the season heads into what could be its halfway point, depending on whether the two planned and two postponed Middle Eastern races due to finish the season can take place in the context of the war between the US/Israel and Iran. Clarity is expected over the summer break.
But the Italian who leads Russell by twenty-five points is on the limit of his engine allowance after Mercedes discovered a potential problem with his Silverstone power unit and is investigating whether it can be used again. Mercedes has seen several reliability issues which have led to Norris exceeding his control electronics limit – a power unit element.
Arvid Lindblad was best of the rest in the Racing Bull, he was over a quarter of a second behind the Mercedes as he went a quarter of a tenth ahead of Gabriel Bortoletto. The Audi driver split the two Racing Bulls, who in turn were split by the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson, who missed out on the top ten by a quarter of a tenth.
Lawson was comfortably half a second faster than the second Audi of Nico Hulkenberg, with Alex Albon over three tenths behind, followed by Franco Colapinto. Esteban Ocon was nearly half a tenth behind the Alpine as he marked a decade, almost, since his debut at this race in 2016 as he went a quarter of a second ahead of former teammate Pierre Gasly.
Valtteri Bottas was nearly four-tenths faster than Cadillac teammate Sergio Perez, but were a tenth behind the Alpine. Carlos Sainz put his Williams between the Cadillac six tenths behind as he went nearly two-tenths ahead of the Aston Martins. Lance Stroll was nearly four tenths faster than reserve driver Jak Crawford, who replaced Fernando Alonso.
